The American Senate : An Insider's History
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| Title: | The American Senate : An Insider's History |
|---|---|
| Description: | Winner of the Society for History in the Federal Government's George Pendleton Prize for 2013 The United States Senate has fallen on hard times. Once known as the greatest deliberative body in the world, it now has a reputation as a partisan, dysfunctional chamber. What happened to the house that forged American history's great compromises? In this groundbreaking work, a distinguished journalist and an eminent historian provide an insider's history of the United States Senate. Richard A. Baker, historian emeritus of the Senate, and Neil MacNeil, former chief congressional correspondent for Time magazine, integrate nearly a century of combined experience on Capitol Hill with deep research and state-of-the-art scholarship. They explore the Senate's historical evolution with one eye on persistent structural pressures and the other on recent transformations. Here, for example, are the Senate's struggles with the presidency--from George Washington's first, disastrous visit to the chamber on August 22, 1789, through now-forgotten conflicts with Presidents Garfield and Cleveland, to current war powers disputes. The authors also explore the Senate's potent investigative power, and show how it began with an inquiry into John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. It took flight with committees on the conduct of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and World War II; and it gained a high profile with Joseph McCarthy's rampage against communism, Estes Kefauver's organized-crime hearings (the first to be broadcast), and its Watergate investigation. Within the book are surprises as well. For example, the office of majority leader first acquired real power in 1952--not with Lyndon Johnson, but with Republican Robert Taft. Johnson accelerated the trend, tampering with the sacred principle of seniority in order to control issues such as committee assignments. Rampant filibustering, the authors find, was the ironic result of the passage of 1960s civil rights legislation. No longer stigmatized as a white-supremacist tool, its use became routine, especially as the Senate became more partisan in the 1970s. Thoughtful and incisive, The American Senate: An Insider's History transforms our understanding of Congress's upper house. |
| Authors: | Neil MacNeil, Richard A. Baker |
| Resource Type: | eBook. |
| Subjects: | Legislative bodies--United States--Upper chambers |
| Categories: | HISTORY / United States / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / American Government / Legislative Branch, POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory |
| Database: | eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) |
| FullText | Links: – Type: ebook-pdf – Type: ebook-epub Text: Availability: 0 |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: The American Senate : An Insider's History – Name: Abstract Label: Description Group: Ab Data: Winner of the Society for History in the Federal Government's George Pendleton Prize for 2013 The United States Senate has fallen on hard times. Once known as the greatest deliberative body in the world, it now has a reputation as a partisan, dysfunctional chamber. What happened to the house that forged American history's great compromises? In this groundbreaking work, a distinguished journalist and an eminent historian provide an insider's history of the United States Senate. Richard A. Baker, historian emeritus of the Senate, and Neil MacNeil, former chief congressional correspondent for Time magazine, integrate nearly a century of combined experience on Capitol Hill with deep research and state-of-the-art scholarship. They explore the Senate's historical evolution with one eye on persistent structural pressures and the other on recent transformations. Here, for example, are the Senate's struggles with the presidency--from George Washington's first, disastrous visit to the chamber on August 22, 1789, through now-forgotten conflicts with Presidents Garfield and Cleveland, to current war powers disputes. The authors also explore the Senate's potent investigative power, and show how it began with an inquiry into John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. It took flight with committees on the conduct of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and World War II; and it gained a high profile with Joseph McCarthy's rampage against communism, Estes Kefauver's organized-crime hearings (the first to be broadcast), and its Watergate investigation. Within the book are surprises as well. For example, the office of majority leader first acquired real power in 1952--not with Lyndon Johnson, but with Republican Robert Taft. Johnson accelerated the trend, tampering with the sacred principle of seniority in order to control issues such as committee assignments. Rampant filibustering, the authors find, was the ironic result of the passage of 1960s civil rights legislation. No longer stigmatized as a white-supremacist tool, its use became routine, especially as the Senate became more partisan in the 1970s. Thoughtful and incisive, The American Senate: An Insider's History transforms our understanding of Congress's upper house. – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Neil+MacNeil%22">Neil MacNeil</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Richard+A%2E+Baker%22">Richard A. Baker</searchLink> – Name: TypePub Label: Resource Type Group: TypPub Data: eBook. – Name: Subject Label: Subjects Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Legislative+bodies--United+States--Upper+chambers%22">Legislative bodies--United States--Upper chambers</searchLink> – Name: SubjectBISAC Label: Categories Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22HISTORY+%2F+United+States+%2F+General%22">HISTORY / United States / General</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22POLITICAL+SCIENCE+%2F+American+Government+%2F+Legislative+Branch%22">POLITICAL SCIENCE / American Government / Legislative Branch</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22POLITICAL+SCIENCE+%2F+History+%26+Theory%22">POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory</searchLink> |
| PLink | https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=nlebk&AN=570267 |
| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Classifications: – Code: 328.73071 Scheme: ddc Type: prePub Languages: – Code: eng Text: English Subjects: – SubjectFull: Legislative bodies--United States--Upper chambers Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: The American Senate : An Insider's History Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Neil MacNeil – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Richard A. Baker – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Neil MacNeil – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Richard A. Baker IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 01 Type: published Y: 2013 – D: 04 M: 02 Type: profile Y: 2014 Identifiers: – Type: isbn-print Value: 9780195367614 – Type: isbn-print Value: 9780190231965 – Type: isbn-electronic Value: 9780199710119 – Type: isbn-electronic Value: 9780199339570 Titles: – TitleFull: The American Senate : An Insider's History Type: main |
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